This invention relates generally to apparatus for dispensing ice cream and, more particularly, to an automated dispenser for dispensing hard ice cream (as opposed to soft ice cream) and other food products.
Automated ice cream dispensers typically found in convenience and fast food stores, for example, are adapted for dispensing soft ice cream only. These dispensers are expensive to fabricate, difficult to clean and, most significantly, are unable to dispense hard ice cream which represents over 90% of the ice cream market and is the most popular snack food. To dispense hard ice cream in commercial quantities, it has heretofore been necessary to hand scoop ice cream from relatively large tubs of ice cream. Not only is this manual process relatively slow, difficult and labor-intensive, it is also very unsanitary. Moreover, the quantity of ice cream scooped on each occasion varies considerably. Many of these same problems also arise in dispensing other food products such as potato salad, cole slaw and baked beans.
Accordingly, there is a substantial and longfelt need in the industry for a machine which is capable of automatically dispensing hard ice cream and other food products.